When you think about high school graduation gifts, you think of money or gift cards, right? Wrong! Teens who are getting ready to go to college want the tech gadgets that will make their lives easier in this new stage of their lives, so I want to share my favorites list, to hopefully inspire you to stay away from gift cards next time and give that teen in your life, what they really want! However, a little ‘traditional’ gift can’t go wrong, so if you want to get them a gift card as well, or a custom graduation hoodie from sites like https://matohash.com, for example, then that may be a nice accompaniment.
Great High School Graduation Gifts
Fire HD 8 Tablet
Do you know a teen who doesn’t like playing games online? This tablet will do more than your teen’s ordinary phone, here is why:
Price is a crucial factor for these tablets because it’s low, yet giving you great features!
- Very Affordable
- Loud speakers
- Decent performance
- Good battery life
- Built in camera
I love the Amazon’s blue-light filter, Blue Shade, is a handy option to make it easier to fall asleep at night. It removes blue light from the display. Hubby loves reading at night, so that comes really handy, because I hate a bright light by my side when I’m trying to go to sleep.
The Fire HD 8 doesn’t feel fragile. The build quality seems great and the buttons offer a nice touch.
It does have dual-band Wi-Fi support – you’ll be able to connect to 2.5GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi bands, and it allows for faster internet download speeds. 5GHz lines are often more stable, and if you don’t have one at home, consider upgrading your router.
It’s powered by the MediaTek MT8163V system-on-a-chip, which has a quad-core processor with 1.5GB of RAM. It offers decent performance for the price, and it’s the same found on the 2016 Fire HD 8.
Amazon offers 16GB or 32GB storage options, but thankfully there’s also support for a MicroSD card – you can expand your storage space to 256GB if needed. The only reason you’ll need this is if you download a lot of offline content, or take lots of pictures!
My favorite use of the tablet is reading books, news articles, and browsing the web. It’s a great size, making it easy to carry around, and reading feels like you’re holding a book or a folded newspaper. Giving your teen the option to fit multiple college books in its library without carrying heavy books around.
Kindle Paper White
This is all about books! After all your teen is going to college, so reading and more reading is definitely in his/her future! Here’s what I love about my Kindle Paper White:
- Now available in black or white
- Higher resolution display (300 ppi) – with twice as many pixels
- Built-in adjustable light – read day and night
- No screen glare, even in bright sunlight, unlike tablets
- A single battery charge lasts weeks, not hours
- Massive selection, lowest prices – over a million titles $2.99 or less
- Prime members read free with unlimited access to over a thousand titles
Fire TV
The Fire TV will allow your teen to access your Amazon Prime membership and have access to all the bonus features extended in it. It’s TV on the go at its best! After all, your teen needs a break once in a while, right?
- Amazon Fire TV supports 4K Ultra HD for true-to-life picture quality. Watch high-definition 1080p streams on Amazon Video, Netflix, YouTube, Hulu and more, even without a 4K TV.
- Enjoy over 15,000 apps, games, and Alexa skills including access to over 300,000 TV episodes and movies on Netflix, Amazon Video, HBO NOW, Hulu, and more.
- Launch and control content with the included Alexa Voice Remote. Simply say, “Play Game of Thrones” or “Launch Netflix” and Alexa will respond instantly. Plus, play music, find movie show times, order a pizza, and more-just ask.
- No cable or satellite? No problem. Watch the best of live TV and sports from AMC, HGTV, ESPN, FOX, and others with a subscription to DIRECTV NOW, or top-rated primetime shows with CBS All Access
Eco Dot
From knowing about the weather to ordering pizza, the Eco Dot will make you the coolest person just by giving this gift! My son uses it every day, for online research and to ask about sports and games. We love it so much we own three of them, placed in different rooms!
- Echo Dot (2nd Generation) is a hands-free, voice-controlled device that uses Alexa to play music, control smart home devices, make calls, send and receive messages, provide information, read the news, set alarms, read audio books from Audible, and more
- Connects to speakers or headphones through Bluetooth or 3.5 mm stereo cable to play music from Amazon Music, Spotify, Pandora, iHeartRadio, and TuneIn
- Alexa calling and messaging – a new way to be together with family and friends. Just ask Alexa to call or message anyone with an Echo, Echo Dot, or the Alexa App.
- Controls lights, fans, switches, thermostats, garage doors, sprinklers, locks, and more with compatible connected devices from WeMo, Philips Hue, Samsung SmartThings, Nest, ecobee, and others.
Of course you can go back to some all time favorites like a laptop, for example, but my goal with this list is to share the latest tech gadgets which are affordable and very useful for your high school grad!
Now here’s the best part! We’re giving away a Kindle Paperwhite! Enter below:
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Hope you’ve enjoyed my list and can’t wait to hear all about your favorite high school graduation gifts!
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Excellent article! Thank you for sharing your thoughts on these – definitely helps me narrow my choices down! 🙂
Those are awesome graduation gift ideas!
I hear they are nice I would love to see for myself
i would like a kindle paperwhite to focus on reading. i had a regular tablet but it got taken over by my son and his apps.
These are all wonderful gift ideas for high school graduates, especially the Fire HD 8 Tablet. I used to say I’d never get one since I preferred reading physical books. That all changed once I got one. Not only it is cost effective, but it helps minimize clutter! 🙂
Great graduation gift ideas you shared here. I would love to have them for myself. 🙂 Thanks for the giveaway!
A kindle really is the best gift! Perfect ideas
I’m so used to reading a paper book. The old school way lol. I like holding a book. A kindle is very useful!
If I won this, I would give it to my brother or sister. We love having access to ebooks and I am sure that my brother or sister would enjoy reading this summer too.
I think these are all wonderful gift ideas. This is great for any graduate. I think they’ll really come in handy for them.
These are great gift ideas. I kind of wish I was graduating all over again just so I can put these on my wish list.
Oh these are great gift ideas. My son will love the tablet. He lost her phone so i want him to give some cellphone or tablet.
The Eco Dot sounds cool and perfect gift idea for my nephew who recently graduated from secondary school.
Great gift idea. I prefer a good battery when it comes to a Tablet. I also love the Eco dot.
These all look like great gift ideas for sure. I would love to see any of these in person and to make sure they are as awesome as they look here. I am always so paranoid when making a big purchase but some of these are more affordable, I like the list.
I think a Kindle is a great graduation gift. So many books now a days are used digitally in school.
Amazing gifts! I love Amazon products, especially the kindle, very useful and lightweight.
There’s nothing like tech gadgets to congratulate a fresh graduate! I think the kindle tablets are awesome choices, especially for those who love to read.
these are amazing gifts that anyone would LOVE to get! (I know I would!) great finds!
I can read my e-books on this kindle . would be great help in my online learning. Fingers crossed.
You can never go wrong gifting electronics! These are GREAT gift ideas for a graduate-to-be!
My Son would love the Fire TV as a graduation gift. I will have to look into getting him one . He will be graduating Collage in a few weeks.
My whole family are avid readers. My daughter just graduated from high school. She would love a Kindle Paperweight.
Technology is always a great gift! These kindle products are awesome! I am not sure which one I would want! I think maybe the ECO dot!
My kids loves to read. They can really use this kindle paper-white for fun reading. Thanks for the chance!
I love my Kindle Fire but wouldn’t mind winning a Kindle Paperwhite so I could gift my kids with my old Kindle Fire.
It is SO amazing how clear the text is on the Paperwhite! Aptly named indeed! I would love one to take with me on an adventure! I love going on a short road trip to get away from it all and hanging my hammock in a park somewhere. The Paperwhite would make a great companion for ME time!
I must admit gift cards or money is usually my go to. Some of the people I know have started listing some items they would enjoy and a tablet is always on the list. You just give the money to put toward purchasing a tablet.
I would love this to read on and my boys to play on during our road trip next month. Well, for any time, but specifically for the upcoming trip.
A Kindle would make an awesome graduation gift. You could pair it with a subscription to Amazon Prime so they could have books ready to go.
There is a lot of great ideas for graduation gifts here. I cannot believe how much technology has advanced since I graduated from high school. My kiddos would love any of these.
These are all great graduation gifts for any graduate. I love the Eco Dot and the Fire TV. Thanks for sharing the gift ideas.
This is awesome! I love tablets because you can do everything on them. I’m a huge fan of ebooks. I used to swear I’d only read paper books, but then I realize that I could have zillions of books in my tablet, without taking up any wall space!
Great giveaway! This would be a fantastic gift for graduation, as well as plenty of other occasions. I would love a Kindle! I am an avid reader and it would be nice to travel and have lots of books at my fingertips.
I am a die hard book lover. I love the feel, the smell and could probably live in a bookstore, but ereaders, like the Kindle Paperwhite, are so convenient. From what I’ve read, you can carry a whole library in your purse. I think that’s amazing.
I love good old fashioned books and there’s nothing better than the smell of a new book, but these are so handy for travelling as they’re light and take like zero space. It’s the future I suppose.
Katja xxx
http://www.katnapped.com
My daughter reads every day and I’d love to win this for her!
My kindle died!
I think I would read a lot more if I had this. I love reading but don’t like toting books with me. Thanks so much for the chance to win this amazing giveaway
I’ve wanted one of these forever so I can read at work without looking like I’m not doing anything lol!
I t would be great to take to the beach this summer. lightweight and so compact easily fits in a beach bag.